1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a charging device charging a photosensitive drum serving as an image carrier with a charging film serving as a charging member, a development device developing a toner image on a recording medium using the charging device included therein, and an image forming apparatus developing and outputting image data input on a recording medium based on certain control using the development device included therein.
2. Description of Related Art
In a related art image forming apparatus such as a printer, a photocopier, a facsimile machine, and a multicolor electrophotographic recording device, a surface of a photosensitive drum is uniformly charged by a charging film and forms an electrostatic latent image thereon by an exposure source based on image information, and toner serving as developer is adhered to the electrostatic latent image to form a toner image. Such a toner image is transferred to the recording medium and is fixed by a fixing device, thereby forming the toner image fixed on the recording medium.
For example, Japanese Un-examined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-332292 discloses a charging device charging a surface of a photosensitive drum using a contact method. The charging device is held by an urging member at one end portion thereof and includes a charging film at another end portion thereof. The charging film contacts a region of an electrostatic latent image to be formed on the photosensitive drum, and the charging device using the contact method allows the charging film to be applied with charging voltage.
Such a charging device disclosed in the above patent document, however, can use only a small portion of the charging film to charge the photosensitive drum, causing difficulty of uniformly charging the surface of the photosensitive drum.
The present invention provides a charging device capable of uniformly charging a surface of a photosensitive drum, a development device including such a charging device, and an image forming apparatus including such a development device.